Tile for walls



J. v. v. BOORAEM'.

' (No Model.)

TILE FOR WALLS.

Patented M3123, 1896.

6 z 6 Z a I a UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN V. V. BOORAEM, OF BROOKLYN, NEIV YORK.

TILE FOR WALLS.

SPECIFIGATIQN forming part of Letters Patent No. 555,672, dated March 3, 1896. Application filed September 28, 1895. Serial No. 563,967. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN V. V. BOORAEM, of the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tiles for Valle and other Parts of Buildings, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to tiles which may be used for walls, floors or ceilings, but which are especially designed for the facing of walls.

The object of the invention is to obtain tiles for these purposes which may be easily molded, which are free from holes, notches, and sharp edges, and therefore little, if at all, liable to be broken in handling or in transportation or by the act of nailing or securing them in place.

To enable others skilled in the art to construct and apply tiles according to my invention, I will proceed to describe the improvement with reference to the accompanying drawings and afterward point out its novelty in claims.

Figure l in the drawings represents a face View of the tiled surface of a wall, the front or outer portion of some of the tiles being broken away to expose their interiors to View. Fig. 2'represents a transverse vertical section of the tiling and its backing. Fig. 3 represents a transverse section of a single tile corresponding with Fig. 2; Fig. 4, a transverse section of two tiles, illustrating a slight modification.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

A A designate the tiles, the vertical sides or ends a cor which may be and are represented as simply squared to abut together, and in the upper and lower edges of which are longitudinal grooves 17 7) preferably arranged at about the middle of the thickness of the tile and of rectangular transverse section. One of the said grooves, preferably, as represented, the lower one, b, has its outer wall of a depth considerably greater than that of its inner wall; but the other groove, 1), the upper one in the examples represented, may have the two walls of its groove of equal depth, but in any case has the outer wall of a depth not greater than the inner wall.

The upper and lower edges of the tiles outside of the grooves 11 b are square with the face of the tile, so that the tiles of the superimposed courses come together outside of their grooves with butt-joints, as shown at a in Figs. 2 and 4. The formation of the grooved upper and lower edges of the tiles as above described produces between the butt-jointed tiles in two successive courses a cavity 1) b, which extends the whole length of the courses and which is closed at the outer faces of the tiles, but from which there is a contracted opening a all along the tiles to the inner faces thereof, the said opening 0 serving for the reception or passage of nails 6 by which to secure the tiles to the backing or wall B, to which the tiles are affixed, and permitting the nails to be inserted at any point in the length of the tiles wherever the nature of the wall or backing may render it desirable to place them, and the cavity 1) 5 serving as a keyway for the reception of a key D of cement, which serves to lock the tiles of two courses together and also serves to hold thenails.

It may be here stated that the only difference between the example of tiles shown in Figs. 2 and 3 and that shown in Fig. 4 is that in the former the cavity 1) b and opening 0 formed between the two rows of tiles are T- shaped and in the latter are rounded internally. In both cases the cavity has a contracted opening to the inner face of the tiles. It is obvious that the shape of the grooves b b and the cavity which they form may be varied without materially affecting the character of the invention.

In applying these tiles to an upright wall or backing, they are built upon each other from the bottom or lower part of the wall or backing upward, and as each course is laid the several tiles in the course are nailed to the wall or backing by one or more headed nails 6 of any suitable kind driven into the latter at any suitable point or points in the length of each tile, the heads of the nails overlapping the interior of the inner wall of the groove. This driving is permitted without injury to the facing of the tile by reason of the depth of the outer wall of the upper groove I) being no deeper than that of the inner wall. Before laying the next course the grooves b in the upper edges of the tiles are filled with cement, which is piled up sufficiently above said groove to fill the groove b in the lower edge of the next course above, and also fill the recess or contracted opening 0 when the next course is applied. This cement, when set, not only forms a key in the kcyway constituted by the said grooves and recess and locks the tiles of the two courses together, but moreover, by filling up the recess or opening 0, it assists in holding the tiles to the wall or backing. The deeper outer walls of the grooves b in the tiles of each course rest upon the outer walls of the grooves Z) in the tiles of the course below in such manner as to make a perfectly close buttjoint between the two courses of tiles.

In applying tiles to a floor or ceiling substantially the same method above described is praticed, the succeeding courses being laid with their grooves b I) outward instead of upward.

An important feature of this invention is that it provides for dispensing with beveled or sharp-edged matching surfaces and with nail-holes, which are sources of very much breakage and consequent loss in the handling and securing of tiles in general, permitting as it does the use of tiles with none but buttjoints between the several courses and yet affording provision for firmly securing them in place on walls.

Vhat I claim as my invention is- 1. A tile for building and other purposes having a longitudinal groove in each of two opposite edges the groove in one edge having its outer wall of a depth not greater than its inner wall and the groove in the opposite edge having its outer wall of greater depth than its inner wall and the outer edges of the outer walls of the grooves being square with the face of the tile for the purpose of forming a butt-joint, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

2. A tile for building and other purposes having in its upper edge a longitudinal groove the outer wall of which is of a depth not greater than its inner wall and having in its lower edge a groove the outer wall of which is of greater depth than its inner wall and the upper and lower edges respectively of the outer walls of said grooves being square with the face of the tile for the purpose of forming butt-joints, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

3. The combination of two contiguous tiles having their adjacent edges squared contiguously to their outer faces to form buttjoints and having formed partly in each of said edges a cavity which is closed at the outer faces but has a contracted opening to the inner faces of the tiles, said cavity serving for the reception of cement by which the two tiles are locked together, substantially as herein described.

JOHN V. V. BOORAEM.

\Vitnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, GEORGE BARRY, Jr. 

